XenDesktop 7.7 and Windows 10

The other day, I was able to share the latest single server density results when running Windows 7 on XenDesktop 7.7. We looked at a range of parameters like:

PVS vs MCS

PVS Disk Cache vs RAM Cache

Citrix Policies: Very High Definition vs High Server Scalability vs Optimized for WAN

Windows 7 optimizations

Once that testing was complete, we moved onto the next version… Windows 10. An again, looking at the exact same parameters.

First, we look at Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2

Second, we look at Citrix XenServer 6.5 SP1

What do you notice?

Between XenServer & Hyper-V… Not much

Between MCS and PVS… Not much as the 5-6% gains in MCS would be offset by increased storage costs due to lack of RAM Caching capabilities

Between the different policies… Around a 7-8% improvement

Between OS optimizations… Around a 7% improvement

The last part I find very interesting.

If you recall, I recently posted a blog (Windows 10 Optimization: The Results) showing that the Optimized OS config, based on the numerous Windows 10 optimizations, showed a 20% improvement in density. As we look at this expanded series of tests, what I now see is something rather interesting. Simply utilizing the Citrix policy templates, we achieve 1/2 of that density gain.

And I can tell you from experience that implementing the Citrix policies are much easier than working through all of those Windows 10 optimizations